Strabo of Amaseia
Strabo of Amaseia
Circa 64 b.c.e. -After 21 c.e.
Philosopher, geographer
Significant Source. Strabo, who was from Amaseia in Pontus, is by far the most important literary source for ancient geography. His Geôgraphia in seventeen books gathers material from many other authors (Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Polybius, Posidonius, and others) now lost. He studied grammar, geography, and philosophy. He knew Posidonius, and although trained as a Peripatetic philosopher, he later converted to Stoicism. He did not travel a great deal, mainly visiting Egypt and Rome. Rather than an innovator in the field of geography, Strabo serves more as an abundant source of previous geographical writers, whom he brings to bear on one another through an ongoing polemic. He is critical of Eratosthenes for combining astronomical data with coast and road measurements. In his writings he emphasizes the usefulness of geographical knowledge and how it enables generals and statesmen to “bring together cities and peoples into a single empire and political management.”
Sources
The Geography of Strabo, 8 volumes, translated by Horace Leonard Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1917-1932).
Claude Nicolet, Space, Geography, and Politics in the Early Roman Empire (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1991).